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A Story for Mother's Day

My Kids Are An Embarrassment I am a pretty mellow, quiet, non-confrontational introvert. My dear lamb of a husband, Tony, is the complete opposite of all those traits in every way. He has joked for our whole 18 years together that our relationship is built on embarrassment- specifically the embarrassment that I experience due to his inappropriately hilarious behavior. He is the life of every party. Everyone knows him, and no one forgets him. In an attempt to sneak away from any social gathering and get home to my pajamas and books, I am usually slouching in his shadow, rolling my eyes but also laughing at his antics on the inside. His sense of humor is what won me over in the first place, after all. I didn’t realize, and neither did he, that Tony was only gently preparing me for life with children. Watch out moms! They are seriously so embarrassing. Every little secret you’ve kept, is suddenly common knowledge to the world. Did you tweeze two whiskers on your chin? Now the neighb
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Thank You, Dr. King

Yesterday was MLK day, and sadly almost none of my students could tell me how his life impacted their own. So, we spent the literacy block researching The life of Dr. King, his service and leadership. We also wrote about how it changed our nation, communities and personal lives. Here are some pictures of the work in progress and finished products. Between my own books and the school library, I had just about enough books for everyone in the class to research a topic involving Dr. King. We discussed how readers read differently for the purpose of research.  We practiced looking for specific dates, details, and using the index. We wrote (and drew) about a dream we have to make the world a better place.  This graphic organizer is a freebie on TPT. We used the information we found in our research to create a timeline, putting important events in chronological order. We used the information we found in our research to compile important informatio
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New Christmas Traditions

I have always been big on traditions, and Tony is even more adamant. When he likes something, he always says "We should do this every year/month/week." Since we've been married, we have established many; matching shirt fall family photo, big Christmas breakfast, watching fireworks from our backyard, meatball Monday, crazy Christmas card photo... So, the girls are three this year and they are old enough to keep the memories we make this Christmas. That coupled with the fact that all our family is too far away for easy visits, I want to establish some fun (affordable and EASY) Christmas traditions that we can enjoy for years to come. I'm not looking for Pinterest-Worthy recipes and activities for every day of December, just some things to look forward to every year. Here are my ideas so far: Cinda the Christmas Angel- She comes in early December to remind us of the love and joy Jesus brought to the world. She leaves messages each day of kind things we can do fo
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The Classroom 2016-2017

Welcome to our classroom!  (Disclaimer: My photos are not great quality and the room is always a work in progress.) Doing morning work at our various workspaces. We have named the areas; the shortie table, the kitchen table, the high top table, desks, the blacktop table, the yellow table, and the coffee table. The couch and recliner are only for independent reading when work is finished. Whole group lessons are always done while gathered on the carpet. The flexible seating has taken a lot of guidance, but its going great now.  The sink area cabinets are decorated and I love it. It's like having even more books! Everything is labeled for my ELL student, and so all my students can be problem solvers and find things for themselves easily! Life saver. Supplies, computers, expectation posters, and watercolors. Turn in trays for each class- I decided to put it far from my desk, because kids always want to lay stuff of the desk or put it in my hand. BIG MIST
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The Difficulties of Living Vicariously

I keep seeing all these blogs and articles about how moms are sad or mad or down on themselves because their children are growing up in a world so much different than the one they grew up in. You used to be able to hang out with neighbor kids and now we have to schedule play dates. You used to have free time and now you feel the need to schedule every second of every day. You had siblings that were close to your age so you want to have biological playmates for your kids. Etc.  I actually have the opposite problem. I am the mom trying to make up for what I now realize I missed in my childhood. I lived in a very rural area. There weren’t many activities or kid friendly places to go. Even if there were, my mom was often babysitting more kids than could fit in her Astro van and my dad was making a living for our family and wouldn’t be home until the weekend. We were stuck at home for two months of summer (except for county fair week, of course). But you know what? I didn’t know any dif
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How To Take The Perfect Family Trip

I’ve read that there are no vacations with kids, they are now called Family Trips. I’ve read that moms should put on the bathing suit and have a good time. Stop worrying about your size.  I was told, “Don’t take those babies in the water!” “We had a horrible time on the beach.” “They are going to hate the sand.” “You will need a vacation from your vacation.” I was more than a little scared of our first “family trip”. Actually, when I read my sister’s text in January asking if we would go, I laughed and said “Yeah right.” Somehow we decided that we would go to Hilton Head with my family, probably because it was 4 months away at the time. I was scared, nervous, anxious, and self-conscience for 4 months. .......................................................................... Let me tell you though, we had a great time. When we got onto that beach and the girls immediately started building castles and looking for shells, I forgot about all the stress I was suppo
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